Marc Myers writes daily on jazz legends and legendary jazz recordings

July 03, 2013

JazzVid: Woody Shaw

Between Woody Shaw's Muse albums in the '70s and '80s, he recorded for Columbia. One of his albums for the label was Stepping Stones, recorded live at the Village Vanguard in August 1978. On the album was Victor Lewis' Seventh Avenue that captured the sounds of frantic traffic, harried pedestrians and a decaying city that was running out of money.

Here's the sizzling Woody Shaw Quintet—Woody Shaw (tp), Carter Jefferson (ss), Onaje Allan Gumbs (p), Stafford James (b) and Victor Lewis—performing Seventh Avenue in Juan-les-Pins on the French Riviera in July 1979. A special thanks to JazzWax reader Bob Gordon...

How did Seventh Avenue come to be? Let composer and drummer Victor Lewis explain. Woody Shaw III sent along these two links (here and here)...

About

Marc Myers writes regularly for The Wall Street Journal and is author of "Anatomy of a Song" (Grove) and "Why Jazz Happened." Founded in 2007, JazzWax is a two-time winner of the Jazz Journalists Association's best blog award.